Contributed by: Abshar Faheem
Understanding the importance of brain health
Your brain is the most important part of your body where you have to deal with countless thoughts. It controls your body, helps your heart to beat, keeps your lungs breathing, and allows you to feel, move and think. No doubt that whatever is harmful to your heart is also harmful to your brain. Nowadays, a young and strong mind is essential for your overall general health. A young and strong mind not only helps you to concentrate on your goals in life but also prevents you from overthinking and depression.
Maintaining a young and strong mind is an essential part of our life and the question is how can we keep our mind young and strong. We are always keen to maintain our body weight but never think to strengthen our mind. In addition to gaining and reading general knowledge, your mind also needs healthy foods. Healthy foods improve your mental health, memory, and concentration. In this article, we will explore 5 delicious foods that you can add to your food menu and keep your mind younger and stronger.
5 Foods that can keep your mind young
Fatty fishes:
Fatty fish come in the priority when people discuss the food good for brain health. Fatty fishes are huge sources of omega-3 fatty acids. More than half your brain is made up of fat known as omega-3. When you consume omega-3 fatty acids, your brain uses them to build nerve cells and these omega-3 fatty acids are crucial for concentration, learning, and memory. It has other benefits too including preventing depression and impairments.
Adding fishes to your food menu can provide numerous positive health benefits. Eating broiled or baked fish can boost gray matter in your brain. Gray matter carries plenty of nerve cells that manage your emotion, decision-making, and memory. Fishes containing omega-3 fatty acids include salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, whitefish, tilapia, flounder, mahi-mahi, trout, and sardines. You can add 13.5 ounces of fish in a week. In addition, nuts, flax seeds, and other seeds are also sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
Nuts & seeds:
Nuts carry monounsaturated fats that maintain your arteries and levels of precursors of serotonin to enhance mood. Consuming nuts in your daily routine can improve your markers of heart health, and a healthy heart leads to a healthy brain. Nuts can improve your cognition and also prevent you from getting neurodegenerative diseases. Eating nuts over a long period can give you a sharper memory compared to the people who do not eat nuts. Nuts contain antioxidants, vitamin E, and healthy fats that provide you numerous brain-health benefits. Vitamin E in nuts can protect your cell membranes from radical damage as well as help in slow mental decline.
All nuts are beneficial for your brain health but walnuts especially can be more nutritious for your brain health as it contains omega-3 fatty acids. Other nuts you can include in your diet are hazelnuts, almonds. Apart from nuts, seeds also contain plenty of vitamin E and antioxidants to shield cells from oxidation stress. As people get old, their brain can be vulnerable to oxidative stress therefore, vitamin E can help them to support their brain health and maintain it younger and stronger.
You can add pumpkin seeds in your diet as it contains powerful antioxidants to protect your brain from free radical damage. Pumpkin seeds are a rich source of copper, zinc, magnesium, and iron. These nutrients protect your brain from various types of neurological conditions including depression, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, migraines, and epilepsy. Other seeds you can include in your diet are sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and so on.
Broccoli:
Broccoli contains plenty of plant compounds including antioxidants. It has anti-amnesic properties that assist your brain in preserving memory. Broccoli is helpful for people dealing with forgetfulness and absent-mindedness on a daily basis. Children often avoid broccoli because of its sharp taste and texture while adding broccoli to their diet can enhance learning capabilities.
Another compound known as sulforaphane is found in broccoli that boosts cognitive functions after a traumatic brain injury. This compound can also reduce swelling in your brain. Sulforaphane has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that assist your brain rebuild damaged neural cells. Broccoli contains vitamin K that makes memory better especially in older adults.
Avocados:
Avocados have plenty of unsaturated acids that support your brain. Adding monounsaturated fats to your diet can reduce your blood pressure, and also assist the brain to function efficiently. People with high blood pressure are more likely to get cognitive decline. Therefore, Eating unsaturated fats in avocados can also reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
There are numerous sources of unsaturated food including almonds, cashews, peanuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, soybean, sunflower, canola oils, walnuts, brazil nuts, and fish. Consuming one avocado daily can significantly improve working memory and problem-solving skills especially in older adults as per some experts.
Dark chocolates (at least 70% cocoa):
Dark chocolates and cocoa powder contain plenty of brain-boosting compounds such as antioxidants, caffeine, and flavonoids. Flavonoids, a group of antioxidant plant compounds, accumulate in the sections of the brain that deal with memory and learning. Such compounds help to boost memory and reduce the possibility of age-related mental decline.
People who eat dark chocolates frequently can perform better mental tasks compared to those who rarely have them as per experts. Chocolates are considered mood boosters, especially dark chocolates. It gives you positive feelings and improves the plasticity of the brain.
The bottom line
Apart from these foods, you can include other foods that can also provide brain-related benefits such as coffee, blueberries, turmeric, oranges, eggs, green tea, tomato juice, olive oil, nuts oil, and whole grains. We have mentioned almost all the foods that can keep your brain young and healthy. We hope you find this article useful for yourself.
